FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The field of the invention is that of pumping apparatus, and particularly apparatus used for pumping the blood of a living person, or of a living animal, to replace one or more pumping functions of the human or animal heart in case of disability thereof. The heart replacement may be partial or complete, temporary or permanent. While pumps according to the invention are primarily for pumping blood, they may be employed in other instances for pumping other materials. The pumping equipment provided by the invention has accelerators for the fluid to be pumped, herein called rotators, which rotate to impel the fluid circularly at substantially the speed of the rotators. The pumps are particularly adapted for the pumping of blood and other delicate fluid materials, biological and non-biological in nature, or for any other application requiring the gentle handling of a fluid, suspension, precipitate or liquid-solid mixture, without any significant damaging effect on the blood or other material being pumped. The pumps do not impose sudden pressure changes, impacts, or rapid changes in direction of flow, and thus do not cause significant injury to or destruction of the pumped material and its components.
Artificial heart pumps generally have been of the positive displacement type, to cause pulsating flow of the fluid being pumped. Although a pulsating movement of the blood through the body may not be necessary to sustain life, the prior art has, nevertheless, not afforded a solution to the problems involved in utilization of centrifugal pumps for pumping blood. This invention solves these problems by providing rotary pumping means, for pumping blood or other delicate fluids, which produce minimum levels of shear and turbulence, thus eliminating any significant damage to the fluid and its components as a result of the pumping.